goodbye, goopy mcgooperson

20.08.13

It’s technically called “Overflow Tearing,” but essentially her tear ducts are clogged. Overflow Tearing occurs when the membrane covering the tear duct inside the nose fails to open at or before birth, thus clogging the draining system. Hence, the goop and crust.

Some Overflow Tearing is normal in infants and the membrane will usually open on its own by the kid’s first birthday. But Holden’s never did… so she has to have surgery. On Thursday.

The surgery is referred to as “Probing and Irrigation.” It’s gross, but basically they stick a thin wire through the inner pink part next to her eyeball and thread it down into her nasal cavity. Then they flush it out with fluid, and that should supposedly do the trick.

I’m told the actual procedure takes five minutes, but she’ll have to have anesthesia, which is scary to me. The whole process from going under to waking up should take an hour, with no real recovery time or after effects (allegedly).